Cousino Macul Winery Tour

by Boris at Chilean-Wine.com on April 27, 2010

If you are planning a visit to any Chilean wineries, you must make a stop at Cousino Macul. Not only is it a 30 minute drive from the center of Santiago, but its a time capsule of the Chilean wine industry.

I was impressed by the beauty and sense of isolation that was found so close to the capital. The grounds are vast and beautiful. With lots of very large mature trees. It was peaceful, serene, and tasty.

Our visit, like most winery tours, starts out in the showroom/sales room. From there we began our tour through the warehouse you see to your right. These old containers were decommissioned just over ten years ago, replaced by modern stainless steel tanks. I’m glad they decided to keep them. Very impressive, the history is palpable here.

Moving on, the basket here is one of the harvesting baskets used at the winery…say…about 100 years ago.

This big barrel with wheels was one of the last stops the wine would make before bottling. From here the wine was pumped out with the pump you see in the next image.

Here is the pump machine which would extract the juice from the big barrel above and push it out to the six bottle station.

And the final stop of course is the filling of the bottles.

Of course after filling up the bottles, you’ve gotta put the cork in them. Marvel at this vintage cork inserter.

Some really old bottles waiting for their label. Yup, labeling was done by hand. Can you imagine the number of paper cuts on your tongue you might get doing this?

After seeing how the bottling process it was time to see where some of the goodies lay hidden. The underground cellar at Cousino Macul is absolutely beautiful. One of the creepiest, gothic tomb like cellars I’ve been in. I was told they do corporate events and tastings here. Perfect for a halloween bash.

That is a 1937 vintage shelf you are looking at. There were plenty of bottles dating back a century.

While kicking back in the very cool underground cellar we tasted Cousino Macul’s Sauvignon Gris. A Rose that was floral, tangy, edgy, with depth. If I only had a nice piece of fish with me at the time…

oh well.

The tour ended with another couple of tastings in the showroom. I really enjoyed myself and can guarantee that you will as well. A tour of Chile’s wine country is not complete with a stop here.

Tours are available in English and Spanish. Reservations are recommended but not necessary. Visit www.cousinomacul.com for directions and details.